UNITED'S Carling Cup games these days are a little like the X Factor - and it was referee Richard Beeby who took the part of the cruel Simon Cowell.

Old Trafford's lowest crowd for seven years only turned up in the hope of seeing a star of the future amid Sir Alex Ferguson's latest batch of young wannabes.

What they got instead was a referee who unnecessarily dismissed Barnet goalkeeper Ross Flitney after just 90 seconds, reducing him to tears and killing any prospect that the game might develop into a real contest.

United supporters have been used to Sir Alex Ferguson fielding young unknowns in this competition, but this time he dug a bit deeper with no fewer than five teenagers in the starting line-up.

Two of the three debutants were local lads, with 20-year-old left back Adam Eckersley born in Manchester and 19-year-old midfielder Richie Jones from Stockport.

But even with such a low-profile cast, there was high drama from the start.

It was meant to be Barnet's big night but bumptious referee Beeby spoiled the occasion by ridiculously sending off Flitney when many in the crowd were still taking their seats.

Ovation

The young keeper was marginally outside his area when he picked up Phil Bardsley's hopeful long ball.

It was a borderline decision , but booby Beeby stuck to the letter of the law and showed him the red card.

The poor lad was disconsolate despite getting a sympathetic ovation from the home fans, and so was midfielder Louie Soares who had to be substituted to make way for sub keeper Scott Tynan.

It was the harshest of punishments for the most trivial of offences and was compounded when Liam Miller slammed the resulting free-kick in off the underside of the bar to give the young Reds the lead.

As if the Gods of football had not inflicted enough cruelty on the League Two side, they gave another twist of the rack on 20 minutes when Richardson's free-kick from wide on the right drifted tantalisingly across goal and, with Tynan rooted to the spot, ended up in the far corner of the goal.

The young Reds showed hapless Barnet no mercy and Giuseppe Rossi got his first Old Trafford goal on 51 minutes, the little Italian-American's control and left-foot finish giving just a hint of his huge talent.

Barnet hit back on 74 minutes when Pique's slip allowed Dean Sinclair in to calmly round Tim Howard and slot home in front of their 4,000 travelling fans.

But Sylvan Ebanks-Blake had his moment of glory in his first start for the first team.

With two minutes of normal time remaining. Miller's neat chip found Rossi breaking the offside trap and when his attempted control squirted sideways, the 19-year-old was on hand to side-foot into an empty net.